United States Religious discrimination in the
history of the United States dates back to the first
Protestant Christian European settlers, composed mostly of
English Puritans, during the
British colonization of North America (16th century), directed both towards
Native Americans and non-Protestant
Roman Catholic European settlers.
Canada In
Canada, during 1995-1998,
Newfoundland had only Christian schools (four of them, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, and inter-denominational (Anglican, Salvation Army and United Church)). The right to organize publicly supported religious schools was only given to certain Christian denominations, thus tax money was used to support a selected group of Christian denominations. The denominational schools could also refuse the admission of a student or the hiring of a qualified teacher on purely religious grounds.
Quebec has used two school systems, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic, but it seems this system will be replaced with two secular school systems: one French and the other English.
Ontario had two school systems going back before Confederation. The British North America Act (1867) gave the Provinces jurisdiction over education. Section 93 of the BNA Act offered constitutional protection for denominational schools as they existed in law at the time of Confederation. Like "Public schools", Catholic schools are fully funded from kindergarten to grade 12. However, profound demographic changes of the past few decades have made the province of Ontario a multicultural, multi-racial, and multi-religious society. The thought that one religious group is privileged to have schools funded from the public purse is often considered unacceptable in a pluralistic, multicultural, secular society. Although it's also true that the people who send their children to those schools have a form that directs their tax dollars to that school system. Canadian faith-based university
Trinity Western University (TWU) is currently facing a challenge from members of the legal and
LGBT community to its freedom to educate students in a private university context while holding certain "religious values", such as the freedom to discriminate against other people, including requiring students to sign a chastity oath, and denying LGBT students the same rights as straight students. TWU faced a similar battle in 2001 (
Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers) where the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that TWU was capable to teach professional disciplines. On 16 June 2019, Quebec banned public servants in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols. The legislation was erected with the goal of promoting neutrality. Prime Minister Trudeau argues that the ban goes against the fundamental rights of the Canadian people.
European Union The
Court of Justice of the European Union applies aspects of
formal equality and
substantive equality when evaluating religious discrimination.
Germany in Europe
Scientologists in Germany face specific political and economic restrictions. They are barred from membership in some major political parties, and businesses and other employers use so-called "sect filters" to expose a prospective business partner's or employee's association with the organization. German federal and state interior ministers started a process aimed at banning Scientology in late 2007, but abandoned the initiative a year later, finding insufficient legal grounds. Despite this, polls suggest that most Germans favor banning Scientology altogether. The
U.S. government has repeatedly raised concerns over discriminatory practices directed at individual Scientologists.
Greece In
Greece since the
independence from the
Muslim Ottomans rule in the 19th century, the
Greek Orthodox Church has been given privileged status and only the Greek Orthodox church, Roman Catholic, some Protestant churches, Judaism and Islam are recognized religions. The Muslim minority alleges that Greece persistently and systematically discriminates against Muslims. Recently, professor Nick Drydakis (
Anglia Ruskin University) examined religious affiliation and employment bias in Athens, by implementing an experimental field study. Labor market outcomes (occupation access, entry wage, and wait time for call back) were assessed for three religious minorities (Pentecostal, evangelical, and Jehovah's Witnesses). Results indicate that religious minorities experience employment bias. Moreover, religious minorities face greater constraints on occupational access in more prestigious jobs compared to less prestigious jobs. Occupational access and entry wage bias is highest for religious minority women. In all cases, Jehovah's Witnesses face the greatest bias; female employers offered significantly lower entry wages to Jehovah's Witnesses than male employers.
Mexico According to a
Human Rights Practices report by the
U.S. State department on
Mexico note that "some local officials infringe on religious freedom, especially in the south". There is a conflict between Catholic/Mayan syncretists and Protestant evangelicals in the
Chiapas region.
United Kingdom Within the
United Kingdom (UK),
Northern Ireland has a long history of discrimination based on the religious and political affiliations of Roman Catholics (
Nationalists) and Protestants (
Loyalists). Some discrimination against Catholics was based on the idea that they were disloyal to the State. In a speech on 19 March 1935,
Basil Brooke (
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (1943-1963)) spoke on the issue of employment based on religion: "I recommend those people who are loyalists not employ Roman Catholics, ninety-nine percent of whom are disloyal." In November 1934 the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
James Craig stated that his administration was a "Protestant Government for a Protestant People." Discrimination based on religion in Northern Ireland is alleged to have occurred in the areas of housing allocation, employment, voting rights, state benefits and with the
Gerrymandering (or discriminatory
Electoral boundary delimitation) to ensure election results. An analysis of the 1,095 Northern Ireland government appointments in 1951 showed that Nationalists (comprising 34 percent of the population) received only 11.8 percent of positions in local government bodies: Borough, County, Urban and Rural District Councils. A system known as
Plural voting provided for property owners to cast multiple votes in elections. Plural voting ended in the UK in 1948 but remained in effect in Northern Ireland until 1969. The
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded in 1967. Several of the demands made by NICRA were for "One Man One Vote", the end of gerrymandering and discrimination based on religion. ==See also==